ABSTRACT
In the context of immersive journalism, de la Peña et al. write that “virtual reality systems are uniquely fitted to deliver first-person experiences of stories that appear in the news”, and that “immersive journalism offers the opportunity of a uniquely different level of understanding contrasted to reading the printed page or passively watching audiovisual material”. This chapter reports on a design experiment where virtual reality stories were made as mandatory coursework. Phenomenology explains the experience of being present at the scene and helps to describe what witnessing means in this context. Narrative theory shows the importance of the position that is implied for the user in the narrative. Witnessing seems to be a storytelling technique with potential in a still emerging journalistic practice.
